Ravenheart Music: Interviews

I have recently had the pleasure of interview with Wedge (John Wardlaw) of Anti-M (www.myspace.com/antimband). Their latest cd 'Damage' has been described as a little like Depeche Mode crossed with Evanescence. Read on.....

Not many people here in the UK would have heard
of you, although if I had my way that will
change. Tell me a little about yourselves, and
how did you arrive at the name Anti-M?
I co founded the band with Mark Rumer. We were
both Keyboard players but he knew more about
recording and midi and I was more into lyrics and
songs. Mark liked bands like Tangerine Dream, Vangelis
and Eno while I was more into progressive rock like Yes,
Rush, Pink Floyd and the Who. We started writing songs
that were either space music or songs that were funny.
Ruston Slager was yet another keyboardist I had
known since I was about 10 years old. He had a
David Bowie like voice and was a good song
writer. Ruston and I wrote most of the material
on the first album, NO WAVES IN HELL, which
reflected our sense of humour. In fact the first
album was supposed to be our only album, a one
off "joke" project. Our friend Steve Weber
played most of the guitars on the album as well
as on our second album POSITIVELY NEGATIVE. POS
NEG as well call it now was a more serious album.
Mark was less involved so Ruston and I did most
of it using guest musicians to fill in the gaps
where guitar, bass or other instruments were
needed. Guitar legend Ronnie Montrose, who has
played with Van Morrison, Edgar Winter, Gamma and
his own band Montrose was a guest musician on our
second album as well which really helped us get
some exposure. POS NEG is hard to classify, just
like NO WAVES was but people still say we sound a
bit like Depeche Mode and Peter Murphy plus
Ruston still sings like David Bowie. It was a
very retro 80's sounding album.

When we decided to start work on DAMAGE I had
been listening to Godsmack and Disturbed when a
friend gave me the first Evanescence album. Not
long after that I discovered Lacuna Coil. I knew
we couldn't do music like this as we were so
Ruston and I asked Barbara Moseley, who had
guested on our last album, to join the band on
Bass and Vocals and Jon Moseley (her husband and
hard rock guitarist) to join as our full time
guitarist. The Damage recording sessions evolved
from there with Derek Poultney coming in at the
end on drums and drum programming. So Anti-M is
now a 5 piece with Mark and Steve no longer
involved.

Mark actually came up with the band name. We had
just finished writing some of our first songs and
we realized we needed a name. The Wizard of Oz
was on the TV and Mark suggested Auntie M but
spelled Anti-M. We laughed about it so much that
we had to use it. In fact we almost called the
first album TOTO GOES TO HELL.

Have any members of the band been involved with any
other musical projects, that you would care to perhaps
let us here at Ravenheart Music in on?
Barbara and Jon were in several bands that played
live here in Southern California and Barbara has
recorded a lot of songs. I am hoping to convince
her to release a cd of that material on CDBABY.COM.

Ruston has done three solo projects but the most
recent, REMNANTS IN PARADISE is the only one
available on CD. Its mostly Piano and Strings
with Ruston singing. It's a bit folky but I think
the singing with the piano reminds me a bit of
the UK band CAMEL. You can check it out on
www.cdbaby.com/cd/ruston.
I am currently working on a solo project of cover songs
that will include songs by Depeche Mode, Xymox, Lacuna Coil,
Pink Floyd, the Fixx and Chris Isaak. Kind of an odd mix but
I like a lot of music.

Your epic CD 'Damage' is a tasty morsel of laid
back rock. I am amazed that Anti-M are unsigned!
Can you tell me more about the songs on the
record?
I wrote most of the lyrics on the album and had
kind of a theme of the emotional damage we can
all go through in life mostly from relationships.
Luckily the songs that Barbara, Ruston and Jon
wrote really fit the them well.

The opening song, DREAMING IN METAPHOR, is an instrumental
inspired from a trip I took to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in
Australia. I make a small attempt at playing the didgeridoo
on that song. It is a mix of eastern music themes bridged
with hard rock bits. LET U IN is a great pop rock song by
Barbara. Its dark lyrics, eerie keyboards and
tricky guitar rhythms really work well together.

DAMAGE is our hard rock track. I think it is the
closest we come to sounding like Lacuna Coil or
Within Temptation. The song is about a girl who
hates her life doing the same thing every day but
she dreams of a life with heroes and villains.
Barbara sings the verses and I sing the chorus
bits using a vocoder of sorts on my voice. It was
the first song Barbara and I wrote together.

DEEP is the showcase song for Barbara's voice.
This is really a beautiful song with sad lyrics
about having to say goodbye but holding on to a memory.
It could have been called THE STORY IN
YOUR EYES but the Moody Blues have too good of a
song with that title. Ruston had written this
little piano bit. I changed the piano to layers
of synths and built up some drum loops. Then Barb
and I put on the vocal melody. When someone asked
my how I came up with the lyrics I joked that I
was channeling Tori Amos and that almost became
the name of the song.

RAGE was the second song to be written on the
album. It is also the first Anti-m song ever to
have been written from a jam session. Ruston and
I were just jamming on two keyboard to a loop in
the back ground. The original demo was 9 minutes
long. We trimmed that down and let Jon have a go
on the solos and then Barb and I worked out the
melody. So it is a band song. It's also one of
the few songs where I get to play guitar. I play
the power chords in the bridge and the slide at
the end.

LITTLE THINGS is another pop rock song by
Barbara. It was intended to be a rock song, then
an acoustic song, then a piano song and the final
version was more electronic. We plan to release a
single with all the versions on it some time in
the near future.

From here on out the musical styles of the band
really get tossed about. BEAUTIFUL BABE is more
like Depeche Mode, very electronic pop while WAIT
A WHILE is just a piano ballad. ROSE OF LOVE is
more of a Techno club dance track while SHIVER is
very much an electronic goth song, very dark. The
last two songs, SIXTH EXTINCTION and NO KILL I (a
star trek reference for those who know the
original series) are our progressive rock
closers. Written for our last album but not
completed until we finished them up during the
Damage sessions. INCINERATION is more of a Rush
meets Joe Satriani meets Ronnie Montrose rock and
roll soundtrack bit. I could see it doing well in
a surfing or racing movie. The album is a real
mix of styles, I could go on for ever but I think
you get the point.

I do hear influences of Within Temptation, The
Gathering and even Pink Floyd in your music. That
is no bad thing. Was it intended?, or was that
the way it just turned out?
IT'S ALL INSIDE was definitely pushed in the
direction of Pink Floyd. When Ruston and I heard
Jon's demo we felt if was Floydish and we added
keys and bass to match the sound. I guess it's a
bit like Bowie sings Floyd, which he recently did
on a David Gilmour DVD. Bowie sang Comfortably
Numb with Dave. Oops, sorry this is supposed
to be about Anti-M, not Pink Floyd. Hmmmmmmm
where was I. Ah yes, the Gathering. DAMAGE IN THE
DREAM was written when I was listening to
Nighttime Birds almost daily so I'm sure their
style influenced the feel of that song. Lacuna
Coil was an influence as well as Evanescence and
Nightwish but I didn't discover Within Temptation
until we reached the mixing phase. They didn't
become popular in the states until THE HEART OF
EVERYTHING came out.

INTO THE RAIN is actually influenced by Chris
Isaak and Godsmack, if you are familiar with both
and you listen to the "mellow" Godsmack songs you
can hear it. ROSE OF LOVE was actually inspired
by King Crimson, the opening loop mainly.
Finally, Depeche Mode is always an influence as
well . Martin Gore actually lives here in Santa
Barbara now and Mode has recorded and mixed parts
of two of their latest albums where we mixed
Positively Negative. Just an odd note, Mode was
talking to the studio we were mixing in for an
upcoming recording session. I guess that means
there's a Mode album on the way.

Do you have any fave songs on this album? and by
and large how would you yourself describe your
sound?
By far RAGE is my favorite song on the album. If
the album had never been finished the sessions
would have been worth it just to have recorded
RAGE. We feel Rage is to Anti-M as Kashmir is to
Led Zep. DAMAGE and DEEP are also personal
favorites. Oh and SHIVER, even though it is so
short.

Our music has been hard to describe in the past.
Such a mix of styles with no focused direction.
However, I think with Jon and Barbara in the
band that we will stay in this female fronted
melodic goth rock genre for a while. Don't expect
the keyboards to go away though.

Bearing in mind your cd is independently
produced, was the recording process simple or did
it give you any major headaches of any
description?
Recording sessions were usually short. Just a few
hours each. I would lay down say drum loops and
chords. I would then email that to the band. Jon
would then come over and lay down guitar tracks
for a few hours. Barb would come by on another
day and do demo vocals which would be replaced at
a later point with a final take. Sadly the whole
band was almost never in same room at the same
time. All the drums were added last. That was the
hardest part as they were usually done Sunday
night until late.

Mixing was a whole different issue. Our recording
engineer, Mark Casselman, would prefer to be our
producer, which is what I consider myself. So
mixing to a long time with a lot of pushing to
get the exact sound I wanted. Mark is a great
engineer and a good producer but we have a
different vision of what the band should sound
like. With that said I would use Mark again for
any future project. He knows his way around Pro
Tools and all the various plug ins. In the end
the album sounded great and we are happy with the
cd.

Are there plans to record a follow up album?
Yes. I want the band to do a covers album but
that may end up a solo project. Either way there
should be another album someday.

I know you are an independent act, but would
there be any plans to tour in due course, if you
were able get the tour machinery in place?
Absolutely. Anti-M has always been a studio band
but that isn't by choice. The time and money just
were not there to pull off the live show. Plus it
is easier now that the band isn't a trio of
keyboardists anymore. Jon, Barbara, Derek and
Ruston have all played live before, I'm the only
novice.

Being an unsigned band and obviously with all the
headaches of trying to get a deal, is the mood in
the your camp generally upbeat?
A label would be great but if we get a hit right
now then we keep all the money. And while our
music isn't about the money it would give us the
power to keep recording and tour. At the same
time I would sign a decent contract.

CDBABY has made things easier for the indie
artist. Because of them we are on iTunes world
wide, Rhapsody, emusic and you can get the cds
from CDBABY as well. We are also on Amazon.com
(sadly only the USA store) and that is where we
sell most of the cds.

We are doing a triple A radio promotion across
165 stations here in the USA from Oct. Through
the end of the year. Is it doesn't generate some
sales then our mood as a band might not be so
good.

The female fronted rock/metal scene here in the
UK could be stronger although it is ok. What are
your expectations of the rock/metal scene as a
whole in Europe and indeed in the USA?
I think bands like Evanescence in the USA opened
up a whole new approach to women in rock here. I
saw Amy Lee and Christina Scabbia (Of Lacuna
Coil) together on the cover of Rolling Stone. The
headline was something about the sexy women of
rock. Considering Rolling Stone is usually more
interested with the likes of Cheryl Crow or who
is running for president this was a pleasant
surprise. I was also surprised when I discovered
several friends (men in their 40's no less) owned
albums by Within Temptation and Nightwish. I'm
sure it was their kids who turned them on to
them. So in the USA that is a breath of fresh air
from the American Idol, Hannah Montana, Britney
Spears style of music that seems to dominate the
air waves here. I just hope the cd doesn't die to
the download. I approve of downloads but I still
buy Cds.

I would hope that in the UK and Europe that the
success of Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, The
Gathering and Nightwish would help the genre to
expand and grow. I don't think any of us want
copy cats but new music is always a good thing as
long as someone likes it.

Musically and spiritually who/what are your
inspirations, and what sort of music do you
listen too when you are chilling out?
I can't say that I am a religious person but
music brings out so many feelings in me that I
think any music that makes me "feel" is an
inspiration. Sometimes uplifting sometimes dark
and angry. I'm always looking for new music.

As I mentioned, I grew up on progressive rock so
Yes and Genesis are always there but not as much
as they used to be. While I was writing my
responses to this interview I was listening to
Porcupine Tree. Lately I've been playing Chasing
the Ghost by Collide, kind of electronic trance
stuff. I've been watching the music videos for
Ice Queen and The Howling by Within Temptation.
I love Songs of Faith and Devotion by Depeche
Mode. I have to admit I have all the Duran Duran
albums too. Marillion continues to put our good
melodic moody rock as well. I even listen to a
bit of Timbaland. But I have to admit I am often
pulled back to some of the classic concept albums
of decades gone by. I recommend anyone looking to
expand their musical mind to check out the
following classics: GENESIS - THE LAMB LIES DOWN
ON BROADWAY / PINK FLOYD - THE WALL / YES - TALES
FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS / THE WHO - QUADROPHENIA
/ MARILLION - CLUTCHING AT STRAWS

And would be your plans for the future?
To continue to write and record and hopefully take
this show on the road.

Well good luck in all what you do, and we at
Ravenheart wish you all the very best with
'Damage'. Finally is there anything that you
would like to say to anybody across the world via
this website?
I hope that people will give our music a listen
and judge us on what they hear. I also hope that
my fellow musicians around the world will
continue to write new kinds of music to shape the
music of the future.
--
John Wardlaw
www.johnwardlaw.com